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mid-engine corvette

The hype leading up to the new C7 Corvette was unlike anything in the history of Corvette. Early rumors swirled of a possible rear mid-engine setup, followed by “news” that the C7 would have the same split rear window as the famous 1963 Sting Ray.

Obviously neither of those came to fruition. The Corvette has always been a front mid-engined car, with the motor pushed back to be centered over the front axle. Even without a rear mid-engine (RMR) layout, the C7 has become one of the most lauded ‘Vettes ever produced and is turning heads on the streets and drawing comparisons to Ferrari for its design.

It would be considered sacrilege to change some things in the auto industry.

Specifically, I’m thinking of things like the shape of the Porsche 911, the rear-wheel-drive Mustang, and the V8 Corvette. A 911 with a boxier shape, a front-wheel-drive ‘Stang, or a 4-cylinder Corvette just might be enough to throw the earth off its orbit and disrupt the threads that hold our society together.

It’s pretty safe to say that none of those things will ever happen, but a new trademark filing by General Motors has some Corvette purists wondering if their beloved American supercar will trade its fossil fuel power for a set of recharging electrons.

If you’re one of the people who doesn’t believe Chevy would ever mess with the formula that made the Corvette an American legend, you might want to sit down for this one:

The automaker won two of the industry’s most sought-after awards as its all-new Camaro sports car won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year and the Colorado diesel truck won the magazine’s Truck of the Year award.

It’s not unheard of for one company to take home both awards in the same year, but it’s not a common occurrence either. For Chevy to do it now, at a time when some of the best cars and trucks the world has ever seen are on the market, is quite remarkable.

Plus, there’s at least one more trick up Chevy’s sleeve that could secure it even more hardware for an already packed trophy case.

There has never been a mid-engine Corvette and, most people believe, Chevrolet will never build one.

A Corvette with power coming from behind the driver just isn’t American. We like our cars with ferocious small block V8 engines taking up the space between our feet and the horizon and we like those engines covered by hoods long enough to land a Boeing 747.

That’s why news of a potential mid-engine C8 Corvette, currently dubbed the “Zora,” is staggering.

Little is known about this car, and given that the Z06 chucks out 650 bhp and costs just south of $80,000; anything turned up to 11 should cause quite a scene. The revisions to the chassis will not be updates to the C7, but major changes to be realized in the C8. For this highly tuned version, the price may start around $150,000 and production numbers will be limited to C6 ZR1 levels, somewhere around 1,500 copies.

If this is true, Chevy isn’t building a Corvette, it’s building a Ferrari.

Someday, when humans die off and are replaced by a superior race, future archaeologists will dig up skeletons of our modern cars and be amazed at how advanced a civilization we were. They’ll marvel at the BMW M5 and wonder how it must have sounded. They’ll stumble across the C7 Corvette and wonder why it never fulfilled its destiny. They’ll find a Mustang, and say, “This would have been amazing, if only…”

Then they’ll stumble across a Lexus LFA and write in their journals that although humans are gone, at least they figured out automotive perfection before being done in.

There’s also a good chance they’ll hear about the best automotive rumors of our time and start buzzing all over again about the slightest possibility that, somehow, they’ll be resurrected.